14 DAY TRIAL // Scooters and mopeds are the favorite means of transportation for the youngster, especially students, due to the ease of mobility, the low purchase and maintenance price and to the fact that it's an easy way to get through heavy traffic in the big cities.
Some municipalities have even banned car access in certain areas within the city center, so there's yet another reason why young people love this miniature bike.
Now, the scooters will get even more love from the youth, thanks to the work of a student at The University of Nottingham, Matt Alvey, who is studying Architecture and Environmental Design.
He just designed a brand new recharging system for photovoltaic cells (solar energy converter cells) that he mounted on a scooter. It all began when a company making electrical storage sheds for scooters approached the university about integrating solar power to recharge the vehicle.
Caroline Moore, Director of Security GB, the Chesterfield based company that sells the storage sheds, says "We wanted a solar panel system that would reduce the electric costs for disabled users and cut costs on getting a power supply connected to the shed."
The first results are good and seem to overcome problems often associated with connecting mains power to the shed. The new gadget can prove costly as it requires a qualified electrician to do the work, but it would also prevent the possibility of the charger overloading the owner's mains electricity supply to their home.
"The other big advantage is that it will generate electricity by a renewable means and therefore has no harmful emissions," said Alvey.
"Increasingly more and more people are becoming aware of their own impact on the environment. Renewable energy technologies are becoming extremely popular with the general public and this project is one example of how demand for a green solution was sought by the consumer," said Dr Mark Gillott, Co-Director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Technology at the School of the Built Environment.
Future applications will be very profitable, since there is a growing market for electric bikes, so the student has every reason to find a way of making them 100% sustainable.